Susan Bigelow, University of Notre Dame
“Catholic Inculturation and Human Dignity in Uganda: Successes, Shortcomings and Potential”
Bio: Susan Bigelow is a senior Political Science and Theology major at the University of Notre Dame. She is from Centennial, Colorado. Through the generous support of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, she spent last summer traveling throughout Uganda exploring the country's diverse religious landscape, focusing particularly on Ugandan Catholic identity. In the Spring, she will complete her senior honors thesis in Theology, a critical reflection on the challenges to religious inculturation faced by the Catholic Church in Uganda. Although the seeds of her passion for East Africa were initially planted as a small child through repeated viewings of The Lion King, her current research came about as the result of an interest in studying musical and liturgical expression in African and Afro-Brazilian populations in which both Christianity and traditional religions have strong cultural footholds. Outside of class, Susan enjoys singing and playing percussion with the Notre Dame Folk Choir. After graduation, she hopes to continue her studies and to eventually pursue a career in human rights and public policy.
Abstract: Initially intending to study the extent to which the Catholic Church in Uganda is embracing liturgy as a source of empowerment, healing and community building, as well as in efforts aimed at peace, reconciliation and justice, the research focus ultimately shifted. The researched quickly concluded that presupposing such a relationship assumed a framework within which the Ugandan Catholic Church did not comfortably fit, in large part because the common understanding of both ministry and the role of the laity there is significantly different than American Catholicism. This paper will argue that crucial shortcomings in the way in which the Catholic Church in certain parts of Uganda communicates with and responds to local culture detracts from its immense potential to promote human development in Uganda. While more has been written on liturgical inculturation (i.e. the incorporation of drums and dance into worship in Africa; the integration of relevant traditional rituals ceremonies into the celebration of sacraments, etc.), this research takes a new and unique look at how the Church should respond in the face of certain cultural norms that also correspond to antiquated or fundamentalist (yet often tempting in their simplicity) versions of Christian thought and practice, such as issues over the position of women or the treatment of homosexuals, in a way that transcends simple “inculturation” to actually promote human dignity and development.
